Executive brief
OpenClaw is a gateway platform that manages communication channels including Telegram integration. A vulnerability allows authenticated users with standard operator write permissions to bypass access controls and reach administrative-level Telegram configuration settings and scheduled task persistence mechanisms. An attacker with compromised operator credentials could modify critical settings or establish persistent backdoor mechanisms that should only be available to system administrators.
Technical details
This is an improper privilege management vulnerability (CWE-269) in OpenClaw's Telegram target-writeback functionality. Authenticated operators with operator.write permissions can reach admin-class configuration endpoints via the send API endpoint without proper scope validation. The vulnerability requires valid operator.write credentials and network access to the OpenClaw gateway API (no user interaction needed). An attacker can exploit this to modify Telegram configuration persistence settings and cron job definitions beyond their authorization level. The fix, released in version 2026.3.28, implements proper admin-scope gating by requiring operator.admin privileges for legacy target writeback persistence operations (commit b7d70ade3b9900dbe97bd73be9c02e924ff3c986).
Affected products
- OpenClaw OpenClaw all versions before 2026.3.28
Timeline
- 2026-03-31: disclosed: GitHub security advisory published
- 2026-03-25: patched: Fix commit merged
- 2026-04-24: advisory: GHSA-394x-274p-mqc6 published (later withdrawn as duplicate)
- 2026-05-06: other: GHSA-394x-274p-mqc6 withdrawn as duplicate of GHSA-767m-xrhc-fxm7